Watch Joaquin Phoenix Do a Creepy Dance in ‘Joker’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Hi, this is Todd Phillips. I’m the director of “Joker.” So this scene is
interesting because it’s right after a life-changing
cataclysmic event in Arthur’s life, and he’s found this
little kind of rundown park bathroom to go in and
collect his thoughts and get himself together. What’s interesting
about this scene to me is it’s entirely different
than what we had scripted. In the script, Arthur was
to come into the bathroom, hide his gun, wash
off his makeup, and staring at himself in the
mirror like what have I done. And when we got to
the set on the day, Joaquin and I just
sort of stood around like, this doesn’t
really seem very Arthur. Why would Arthur
care to hide his gun? And we really kind of
tossed around a million ways to just do
something different. And it was about an hour into
it and I said, hey, you know, I got this piece of
music from Hildur. Hildur Gudnadottir
is our composer, and she’d been sending
me music throughout, while we were shooting. And I just wanted to play
Joaquin this piece of music. And Joaquin just started
to dance to the music, and it was just me and
him alone in the bathroom. There’s 250 people on
the crew waiting outside. And he just starts
doing this dance, and we both kind of
look at each other and said, O.K.,
that’s the scene. It made sense to us
because when I first met with Joaquin
and we first started talking about “Joker,”
I talked to him that Arthur is one of those
people that has music in him. So music and dance became
a theme in the film. And this is the second
time we see him dancing, and it’s a little bit of Joker
coming out, a little bit more than the scene before
and a little bit less than the next time
we see him dance. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Thought the movie was great but this was the only scene I honestly didn't get. Is it a detachment of Arthur's personality, an attempt for his old persona to shed itself and embrace the madness via dance…..like that is the closest thing to a rationale or logic I could come up with for why Arthur did this after commiting the crime he did.It felt too sudden a shift in personality though….like….I dunno….feels like something that should have been a deleted scene tbh cos it just ruins the pacing and the character's progression into madness feels less believable somehow

Love this movie. My take on the scene is that it was cathartic for Arthur. It's also the beginning of his transition into total madness. If Phoenix doesn't get an Oscar for this role, I might never watch another movie again!

The bathroom scene was so, absolutely beautiful, because it’s just Joker coming out being himself, being human, showing pain, using it as like a coping mechanism, but it’s so beautiful, definitely my favorite scene

i like the joke scene (where Arthur got fired from his clown job and was exiting the employee locker room and the other employees were gossiping about the wall street murders) where he said he forgot to punch out and he punched the clock in/out machine till it broke and smashed to the ground… then he laughed insanely… that was awesome….

This is an excellent movie, very deep, many layers, beautifully put together, Phoenix was superb. It will really get you to think about how to treat others who are less fortunate around us. Do we still choose to walk pass them or just to show some respect? For those still complaining too much violence, Joker is the villain of all villains combined in Batman series, the story telling was vivid and gravitating. This will become a classic movie to watch over and over again.

It kinda reminded me of tai chi. Like he finally found a sence of balence in his chaos. Like he fianlly found a place he fits in the that universe and he was trying to stay tapped into it. Like when you first feel love and afterwards you have all that energy running through you.

As the dance on fire starts the character of the Joker emerges…As a Metamorphoses takes shape for a new birth to take place. The Joker has emerged Cos you all were the ones that me… I don't apologize for anyone..It just happens to be a new day. Time to start living and to make it happen.

Bottom line he needs an award for his performance! I watched it in awe of his acting. He pulled me in and I was not prepared for this movie and had no idea what to expect. I was glued to it the entire time. I must say rarely do you see acting on this level. Really you just dont. I'll be watching in again soon.

I truly believe the theory that Joker (the character) is like a spirit or an energy that takes over the actor playing him, for a period of time of course. And it never fails, it's always weird in his own unique way.

Already a cult film. A masterpiece. Along with Taxi Driver this is one of the best psychodrama films ever made. Actually i believe Arthur's character was more challenging to portray than Travis Bickle.